Judaism Reborn In Cuba

August 3, 1997|By DEBORAH RAMIREZ Staff Writer

Judaism is now the center of their lives, but it was not always so. A relative who visited from Israel five years ago observed their economic straits and suggested they contact the Hebrew community for help. About a year ago, they began the paperwork to immigrate, but last month their request was denied.

Krawiec has written to a sister in Israel, asking her to intercede on their behalf.

"All my plans for the future are based on Israel," Bolano said.

Community grew

Jose Dworin arrived in Cuba in the 1920s from Belarus, hoping to reach the United States and send for his mother and brother back home. Neither dream was accomplished. U.S. immigration quotas had already been met. His mother and brother died in a Nazi concentration camp before he could get them out.

Dworin settled in Cuba, along with a wave of other Jewish immigrants arriving from Russia, Eastern Europe and Turkey. The migration continued after World War II. Like Dworin, many thought they could reach the United States, but never did.

Cuba already had a small Jewish community when the European and Asian Jews arrived. American Jews who had fought in Cuba's war of independence against Spain built Havana's first synagogue in 1904 and opened a Jewish cemetery just outside the city.

Dworin worked hard, starting out as a door-to-door salesman and later opened a clothing store. He married another Jewish immigrant and started a family.

Throughout the first half of the century, Jews went into banking, sugar cane mills, railroad construction and other aspects of the island's economy.

By the 1950s, the community of about 15,000 was a prosperous minority. Three new synagogues were built in Havana, bringing the total to five - all housed in stately buildings that also had schools, restaurants, theaters and banquet halls. When Fidel Castro rose to power in 1959, most industries were nationalized. Businesses - including Dworin's - were confiscated. Ninety percent of Cuba's Jewish community headed for exile. Dworin considered leaving but stayed because his daughter, Adela, wouldn't go.

Today, Adela Dworin is the vice president of Beth Shalom, where she has worked for the past 30 years. She is part of an older generation of Cuban Jews that helped Judaism survive.

"I guess I'm a good Cuban because I stayed," said Adela Dworin, sitting in the synagogue's library. "But I also have always been Jewish, since the day I opened my eyes. I never denied it."

The Castro years

After the big Jewish exodus, Cuba's synagogues lost their financial base. Beth Shalom, the largest of Havana's three remaining temples, mortgaged part of its building to the Cuban government, which turned its former restaurant and banquet halls into a cafe theater.

Today, all three synagogues need extensive repairs. Roofs leak and air-conditioners are broken, window panes are missing, and Torah curtains are covered with mold. At Beth Shalom, red velvet seats are torn. The Sephardic center has termites in the altar and doors.

"The state of our synagogues saddens us," said Adela Dworin. "We would like our members to come ... without worrying if a brick or a piece of wood is going to fall on them."

The synagogues declined not only because of the Jews who left, but also because those who stayed distanced themselves from Jewish life.

"Aside from the big exodus, there was the internal exodus," Adela Dworin said. "Some people stopped coming out of fears. Others thought that if they embraced Marxism, they could not be religious."

In the first decades of the revolution, many Jews said they found themselves in the same situation with Catholics and Protestants. Any religious affiliation could cost them a good job or the opportunity to send their children to college.

Communist officials say religious people were at a disadvantage in past years because they did not have the revolutionary credentials - membership in communist or neighborhood groups - needed to get a job promotion or a college degree. They dispute claims of official religious persecution.

"You must understand that Cuba lost half of its doctors in 1960. The revolution had to make a big investment in education," said party official Gomez. "We had to make sure that those who were being educated were going to stay."

But some say they felt a heavier brunt of religious intolerance. Older Jews said they were insulted during the various Middle East wars, when Israel was called an assassin state in Cuba's government-owned media.

"We felt offended, but we had nowhere to go to tell our side," said one temple elder who asked to remain anonymous.

A computer programmer, who also wanted to remain anonymous, said he stopped attending synagogue in 1973, at the height of Middle East tensions. He felt intimidated by the experiences of several Jewish friends who were kicked out of the University of Havana because they belonged to a Zionist club.

"We were the scapegoats during those conflicts," said the programmer, now middle-aged and active once again in his synagogue. "The young Jews hid for 20 years before returning to the temples."

Adela Dworin welcomes him and others back. "We don't ask anyone why they didn't come sooner," she said. "Fear is something you have to feel to understand."